This morning we are watching the Euro decline yet again, with FXE (CurrencyShares Euro) trading with a low $131 handle and a fresh low since last fall.
Year to date FXE has seen more than $66 million leave the fund via redemptions, bringing the fund’s asset base down to about $191 million. On the flipside, bears have been rewarded with performance in EUO (ProShares UltraShort Euro, Expense Ratio 0.95%) which is now a $461 million fund, and ironically more than twice the size of the “long” and unleveraged product that tracks the currency, FXE.
EUO, as we have mentioned in the past, is impressively the second largest Currency ETP listed in the U.S. marketplace behind the well-known UUP (PowerShares USD Index Bullish, Expense Ratio 0.80%). Other, smaller bear funds in the Euro currency space include DRR (Market Vectors Double Short Euro ETN, Expense Ratio 0.65%) and EUFX (ProShares Short Euro, Expense Ratio 0.95%).
On the other side of this Euro sell-off, those that may believe that now is the perfect time to book a European vacation since after all, it is a heck of a lot cheaper than it would have been three to six months ago, ULE (ProShares Ultra Euro, Expense Ratio 0.95%) offers two times daily leveraged exposure.
This fund, which seems like it could be useful to global/macro managers trying to hedge out currency risks debuted back in late 2008, but seems to be a relative unknown to most, with only $2.4 million in
assets under management and less than two thousand shares traded daily on average.
Stepping back from the Euro for a minute, how have U.S. Dollar ETFs fared during this steep Euro decline? UUP has pulled in a notable $152 million year to date via creation activity, putting its asset base well above $826 million and as we mentioned, making it the largest Currency based ETF in AUM terms by a wide margin in the U.S. listed marketplace.